The Timeline
Together, we are working to protect Kilgore’s waters from the toxic threat of cyanide pollution. This means standing up to foreign mining interests and preventing today’s destructive gold exploration and tomorrow’s open-pit, heap-leach cyanide gold mine from threatening Idaho’s water, wildlife, and way of life.
December 2019
Clean Kilgore Coalition partners won a lawsuit filed against the U.S. Forest Service in 2018 on the basis that the agency failed to fully examine the Kilgore Project’s potential impacts to water quality and Yellowstone cutthroat trout.
May 2020
It was further decided that Excellon must cease additional exploration until the Forest Service issued a new decision on the environmental impacts of the project.
January 2021
The Forest Service released a new draft environmental assessment, which Clean Kilgore Coalition partners still found lacking in substantive environmental review of water quality and Yellowstone cutthroat trout impacts. Nearly 4,000 concerned community members, ranchers, and public land advocates stepped up to submit comments in support of more detailed environmental review.
November 2021
The U.S. Forest Service published a Final Decision Notice and Finding of No Significant Impact for the Kilgore Gold Exploration Project. In this document, the Forest Service approved Excellon’s proposal for gold exploration based upon their review of the project’s environmental impacts, despite significant concerns from the public.
March 2022
Clean Kilgore Coalition partners filed a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Forest Service’s November 2021 approval of the Kilgore Gold Exploration Project.
August 2023
The Federal District Court sided with the U.S. Forest Service and Excellon Resources, approving the continuation of mine exploration activities in Idaho’s Centennial Mountains. The mining company can now proceed with a five-year exploratory drilling project which entails the construction of 10 miles of new roads, clearing 140 drill pads, drilling up to 420 exploration holes in the mountainsides above West Camas Creek and Corral Creek, and all the dust, sedimentation, and noise pollution that comes with operating drill pads 24 hours a day, seven days a week, six months a year, for five years.
Summer 2024
The coalition, founded by the Greater Yellowstone Coalition and Idaho Conservation League, added Idaho Rivers United, Friends of Camas National Wildlife Refuge, the Mountain West Recreation Alliance, the Sierra Club of Idaho, and the Henry’s Fork Wildlife Alliance to its ranks.
The Clean Kilgore Coalition partners will continue to pursue all available legal and administrative means to protect this remote and remarkable corner of Idaho from toxic, destructive gold mining.
